An intervention is an effort to promote behaviors that optimize mental and physical health of the patient or discourage or reframe behaviors of the patient considered potentially health-averse. Medication therapy management (MTM) is medical care provided by pharmacists whose aim is to optimize drug therapy and improve therapeutic outcomes for patients. Medication therapy management includes a broad range of professional activities including, but not limited to, performing patient assessment and/or a comprehensive medication review, formulating a medication treatment plan, monitoring efficacy and safety of medication therapy, enhancing medication adherence through patient empowerment and education, and documenting and communicating MTM services to prescribers in order to maintain comprehensive patient care.
Medication therapy management includes five core components: a medication therapy review, personal medication record, medication-related action plan, intervention and/or referral, and documentation and follow-up. A medication therapy review is a systematic process of collecting patient and medication-related information which occurs during the pharmacist-patient encounter. In addition, the medication therapy review assists in the identification and prioritization of medication-related problems. During the medication therapy management encounter, the pharmacist develops a personal medication record for use by the patient. The personal medication record includes all prescription and non-prescription products/medications and may need to be updated periodically. After assessing and identifying medication-related problems, the pharmacist develops a patient-specific medication-related action plan. The medication-related action plan is a list of self-management actions necessary to achieve the patient's specific health goals. In addition, the patient and pharmacist utilize the medication-related action plan to record actions and track progress towards health goals. During the medication therapy management session, the pharmacist identifies medication-related problems and determines appropriate interventions for resolution. Following the patient encounter and/or intervention, the pharmacist must document his/her encounter and determine appropriate patient follow-up.
Providing pharmacies, pharmacy ownership, and service providers a systemized method for processing and tracking patient intervention information associated with an intervention, such as medication therapy management, can be a challenge with today's pharmacy computer systems. For example, it can be a challenge to notify a pharmacy, within the typical healthcare transaction processing, that a patient is eligible to receive a service, such as an intervention opportunity, associated with a fill and/or refill of a medication. Furthermore, should a pharmacy capture service information associated with a fill and/or refill of a medication, communication of the captured service information to the pharmacy ownership and or the service providers is typically delayed.